Building quality inspection system and inspection robot

Abstract

A building quality inspection system includes a controller, a drone, and a robot that are communicably connected to one another. The controller includes circuitry configured to, when exterior of a building is inspected, sends an inspection objective to the drone to instruct the drone to carry out a visual inspection of the exterior of the building, receives inspection data collected by the drone during the visual inspection of the exterior of the building, extracts a location where damage is suspected from the inspection data collected by the drone, sends the location where damage is suspected to the robot to carry out an exterior inspection at the location where damage is suspected, receives inspection data collected by the robot during the exterior inspection, and determines current quality of the exterior of the building based on the inspection data collected by the drone and the robot.

Description

BACKGROUNDTechnical Field[0001]The present disclosure is directed to a building quality inspection system and a robot for inspecting exterior and indoor environments of a building.Description of the Related Art[0002]The “background” description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description which may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly or impliedly admitted as prior art against the present invention.[0003]As buildings deteriorate with age, the importance of building inspections and maintenance of buildings based on results of the building inspection increases. However, in many cases, the inspection is performed manually by human inspectors. This is costly and takes long time. On the other hand, recent developments in fields of aerial drones and robots are an eye-op...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present disclosure is related to a building quality inspection system for inspecting the exterior and interior environments of a building. The system includes a controller, a drone, and a robot that are communicably connected to one another. The controller sends an inspection objective to the drone and the robot to carry out the inspection. The drone carries out a visual inspection of the exterior of the building and the environment outside it while the robot inspects the interior of the building. The system determines the quality of the exterior and interior of the building based on the inspection data collected by the drone and the robot. The robot has an inspection sensor that can measure various parameters, a base portion with wheels for movement, and a foldable portion that can change position and height with respect to the base portion. The system can efficiently inspect the quality of building environments and provide valuable information for building quality control.

Problems solved by technology

This is costly and takes long time.

For example structures such as energy generating windmills are subject to the extreme forces of weather and the environment.

Exposed surfaces of such structures are often not easily accessible and may be difficult to view or inspect.

Often such structures are overbuilt in an effort to secure a stable interior environment.

This of course adds to the cost of manufacture, cost of installation and cost of maintenance for such structures.

Moreover, it is difficult to obtain a dynamic perspective of the environmental conditions and performance characteristics of these aspects of structures.

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